Gearing Up
by Heroicagal
Summary: Virgil Hawkins wasn't the only kid from Dakota the Reach snatched, so was his best friend Richie. In the weeks following that abduction Richie plunges head first into a game of secret identities, suspicious allies, and malicious villains. All he really wants to do is help Virgil out but thanks to the Team, Bang Babies, and an evil mastermind that's going to swiftly be impossible.


My best friend moonlights as a superhero. Of course, I suppose you could say that I am too if you want to be specific. Thanks to the Reach we both have new abilities, only his are useful. I'm his secret tech support. So secret, even Virgil himself didn't know who I was. I was still trying to find a way to break the news to him that I'd been through the same ordeal that he had.

After narrowly escaping the Reach before they executed me for being such a waste in specimen material I came back to Dakota to find the city in chaos. Paris Island had set off a mutagen gas that had resulted in gang bangers getting superhuman abilities. It was a storage site for the Reach of a gas they had intended on mass producing and using on select groups of the populace. I would know. I was exposed to it as one of their first guinea pigs. All the others died while I lived but I gave unsatisfactory results. My powers weren't useful to them, my new intelligence in their eyes so much smaller than their own. They had determined to kill me but I managed to get out, only to find Virgil had gone missing shortly after me. Then the whole invasion happened and there was a team of teenaged heroes who helped the League save the world, among them one named Static. In the interviews of the team that followed I was astonished to see that it was Virgil. All the pieces fell into place and were confirmed when I hacked the Justice League's central computer (not maliciously) and saw the reports on what had been done to Virgil. In my escape I'd left him and others behind, not knowing that they were there but failing to save them all the same. Now I tried to atone for that by helping Virgil out.

He had been sent out to investigate Alva Industries one night and was in a tight spot. I'd been monitoring their activity for a while, noticing that they in conjuncture with Lexcorp had been the helpers in developing the mutagenic gas that caused this "Big Bang" to happen at Paris Island. I got an alert that activity was going on and looking through their security cameras saw Static backed against a door that was electronically bolted. He couldn't get the door open and was about to short the control panel out when I'd finally broken through the firewall protecting his comm. and got in undetected to only but him.

"Don't do that! That'll seal it permanently!" I had warned him. He jumped but I quickly opened the door in a flurry of typing. "There! Get in before the guards see you!" I ordered. He hesitated for a second then, upon hearing the approaching footsteps decided better to take his chances. As Virgil went in I closed the door behind him.

"Who're you?" He asked as the footsteps faded.

"Um… I don't… I don't have an alias." I stammered. He frowned.

"You have a name though, don't you?"

Here my dilemma started. I could tell him it was me and have him over at my place in an instant explaining that what he did was too dangerous and how I would only get hurt if I endeavored to help him, or I could keep him guessing and actually repay him back for abandoning him.

"Can't tell you that. It wouldn't be a secret identity then." I decided that I would help him for a while before telling the news.

"Meaning you shouldn't be on this frequency and I should probably tell the League about this." Virgil responded a bit sarcastically. "You could be the Calculator for all I know."

"The Calculator? There's seriously a guy who goes by that name?" I asked as I was a bit shocked at the stupidity of supervillains.

"Yes and you're probably him." Static retorted.

"Why would I be helping you then?" I tried to reason. He pondered this for a moment.

"I don't know, to gain my trust and get access to the League files or something." I smiled sardonically at that. I already had that.

"Look, let's say we hash this out once you're out of there. We really don't want you getting caught by Alva's goons. That'd be very, very bad."

"You sound…concerned." Virgil detected the note of edginess to my voice. I inwardly groaned at this, Virgil had always been good at reading my emotions.

"You're a good guy. Alva does bad things to good guys." I responded as though that answered his musings.

"Fine. We'll do it your way for now. If you help me successfully complete this mission with my skin intact and the objective secured we can talk about what your future entails."

And so I did. He completed the mission with ease with my help and afterwards he was so impressed he decided that the next time I tried to help he'd listen. And the next. And the next. That's how this partnership began and that's the way I wouldn't have minded it staying but V has always been a bit, shall we say, clumsy when it comes to keeping secrets.

This is the story of how I graduated from behind the scene work to fully fledged hero. Virgil insists I record it for posterity and Nightwing wants the details for his mission report so I'll get into the nitty-gritty stuff in a moment... Whoever's reading this get comfortable. This one's long and chalk full of unfriendly encounters, betrayal, and secrets. It's a bit dramatic for real life but hey, I'm a superhero now. Drama and suspense come with the gig.

**A/N: Okay, I was ecstatic (no pun intended) that they put Static into Young Justice. However, Virgil and Richie are a combo and one without the other is like a PB and J without the PB. I decided to write my own version of Richie being introduced to the YJ universe to correct this. This fic will include no pairings whatsoever except for possible mentions of them. This is solely friendship based and of the shippings possibly mentioned will be none of Virgil and Richie who are more like brothers in my mind than anything else. Now Nightwing is team leader in this fic still, and yes he's a total jerk, but this takes place post "End Game" and I think that he'd be like a mini Bruce ( I love Batman, don't misunderstand me here) if he were still leader. He hasn't dealt well with his grief yet and unfortunately Virgil and Richie are on the receiving end of his wrath because of Virgil not telling the team about someone hacking into their system. He's going to be slightly out of character but I think that it's called for after losing his best friend since childhood. Oh, and the Bang Babies will be in this too. Unlike most other fics, I actually have this one almost all the way written out so a lot is transference from paper to electronics. Hopefully it'll help with update speed. See you soon. **


End file.
